BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — WKU Tennis continued its 2023 season Thursday afternoon against the Austin Peay Governors. The Lady Toppers fell, 6-1, dropping them to 3-2, while the Governors earn their first win of the season, bringing them to 1-1.
WKU lost a hard-fought doubles point to begin the dual-match. After losing at No. 1, the No. 3 pair of Samantha Martinez and Mariana Zegada evened the score by winning, 6-2. The duo improves to 3-0 on the season, good for the best doubles record on the squad. For Martinez, this doubles win puts her in sole possession of No. 2 on the program's all-time doubles wins list with 32, passing Lisa Friess (2017, 2019-21) and Laura Bernardos (2019-22).
The doubles point came down to the court two match, where the Lady Toppers lost the tiebreaker 7-6 (1) to go down 0-1 into singles play.
The Lady Toppers lost four straight singles matches in straight sets, giving the Governors a 5-0 lead and securing the win.
Martinez obtained the only point on the scoreboard for the Lady Toppers, winning 7-5, 6-1 at No. 6 and earning her second win of the day. Following that, Austin Peay claimed the 6-1 victory after winning the match on court four, 6-1, 6-3.
"Austin Peay shows why they have made the NCAA Tournament two or three times the last few years, as well as winning their conference," head coach Greg Davis said. "They are a really deep team. Give them all the credit in the world. I was really happy with our doubles. What we wanted to do coming in was to put ourselves in position to win the doubles point and we did that. It just kind of got away from us, I thought. We struggled a little bit to hold serve. I thought overall, it was some of the best doubles we have played. Their three teams are the best doubles teams we have played all year and we put ourselves in position to win the point, so I could not have asked for anything more than that. Singles, I give them all the credit. They came out very decisive in the first sets and had all the momentum after that. We only won one first set, so when you come out like this against a team who has qualified for the NCAA Tournament, you are going to have to come out and win four first sets at least to change the momentum and we really struggled to do that. A lot of that had to do with Austin Peay being a very good team."
The Lady Toppers continue the spring campaign with a home doubleheader this Sunday, January 29 with matchups against Western Carolina and Western Illinois. Doubles play is set to begin at noon against Western Carolina at the Warren County Tennis Complex.
Final Results
Singles (Order of finish: 3,5,1,2,6,4)
1: Denise Torrealba (APSU) def. Sayda Hernandez (WKU) 6-2, 6-2
2: Jana Leder (APSU) def. Rachel Hermanova (WKU) 6-2, 6-4
3: Melody Hefti (APSU) def. Sofia Blanco (WKU) 6-1, 6-0
4: Yu-Hua Cheng (APSU) def. Sunskrithi Damera (WKU) 6-1, 6-3
5: Sophia Baranov (APSU) def. Mariana Zegada (WKU) 6-0, 6-0
6: Samantha Martinez (WKU) def. Asia Fontana (APSU) 7-5, 6-1
Doubles (Order of finish 1,3,2)
1: Leder/Hefti (APSU) def. Hernandez/Damera (WKU) 6-1
2: Torrealba/Cheng (APSU) def. Blanco/Hermanova (WKU) 7-6 (1)
3: Martinez/Zegada (WKU) def. Lascheck/Baranova (WKU) 6-2
How to follow WKU Tennis: For complete information on WKU Lady Topper Tennis, visit WKUSports.com or follow the program via social media @WKUTennis on Twitter and @WKUTennis Instagram.
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